Translator: AnubisTL
Hu Biao stared silently at the gaunt man before him, his expression calm. After a moment, he turned to his two brothers, unsure where to begin.
Just days ago, they had been fired up, vowing to pull off one last big heist together. But now that the heat of the moment had faded, they all seemed to be wavering.
They were holed up in a dimly lit room, a secluded hideout they had found for temporary rest.
"Are you all giving up?" Hu Biao asked.
"No, Boss, that's not what we mean," Maozi, another member of the gang, replied with a conflicted expression. "It's just... you know, we've lived our whole lives following the law. It's hard to suddenly cross that line."
"And to be honest, we don't want to become a terrifying organization like Jiang Cheng Company. We still have loyalty to the federation."
"What are you saying?" Hu Biao rose abruptly, his expression growing agitated. He strode over to Maozi, grabbed him by the collar, and roared, "We've been planning this for so long! Now you suddenly want to back out?"
"Do you even care about the federation?"
"Fuck yeah, I care about the federation! Don't I love it? I do! But who the fuck cares about me?"
"I'm thirty-eight, almost forty. I've followed the rules my whole life, been half a decent guy, even donated to charity sometimes!"
"But did it matter?!"
"I worked my ass off my whole life, and now my mom's dying, and I can't afford her medical bills. The hospital won't take her. Fine, I accept that."
"Hospitals need to make money too. Logic over sentiment. I'm Hu Biao, not a coward. I accept that logic."
"But the federation? My mom paid into her pension for half her life. When she went to collect, the federal government said she'd paid the wrong person! No money."
"Bullshit! Fucking bullshit!"
Hu Biao's emotions surged out of control. His eyes bloodshot, he turned to his three brothers and roared, "Do you believe this shit? Huh? You can pay the wrong person for your pension? Absurd! Ridiculous!"
"Even a three-year-old wouldn't fall for that lie, but the federal government dares to use it to shut me up. What can I even say?"
"I immediately reported it. An anonymous tip went in, and the next day a bunch of people came to talk to me. So much for anonymity! Later I learned that 'anonymous' meant you just don't know who might see your report."
"What a fucking joke of an anonymous report."
"For a month or two, every time I asked, they said it was being 'resolved.' When I asked about progress, they said it was still being 'processed.' When I asked about the money, they said they were still 'checking records and investigating.' What could I do?"
"Make a scene! What else can a nobody like me do?"
"And then? They locked me up for thirty days."
"Do you know what I was thinking about during those thirty days? I finally figured it all out."
"In this society, kindness is the greatest mistake, goodness is the greatest folly, honesty is the greatest sin, and obedience is the greatest error!"
"The Federation preaches virtue because it makes the common people docile."
"Only the elite few, those who use every dirty trick in the book, get to live like kings!"
"To get rich, you have to steal, fight, and compete!"
"Fuck Heaven's Net, that bullshit about 'it may be wide-meshed, but nothing escapes.' I don't believe it! There are definitely more fish slipping through the net than getting caught!"
"I don't give a damn about my life anymore! I'm going to get rich in this lifetime, or die trying. If I die, so be it—just another worthless life!"
"You, Thorn Monkey!"
Hu Biao took a deep breath, turned to Thorn Monkey, and said, his eyes bloodshot, each word dripping with venom: "You've always been a coward, Thorn Monkey. You never dared to fight back when people beat you down. Every time, I was the one who settled the score for you, right?"
"But what about now? You're drowning in high-interest debt, your mother's being harassed at home every day, and you're too scared to even go back. And now you want to give up?"
"What happens after you give up?"
"That snowballing debt of yours—how the hell are you going to pay it off in this lifetime?"
Thorn Monkey sniffled, his eyes stinging and bloodshot, his voice hoarse: "I just... what if we get caught? How heartbroken would our families be?"
"You really think running away with that debt won't break their hearts?"
"Stick to my plan, and we won't get caught."
Meanwhile, Chen Jiang's Automatic Reinforcement Machine had already begun operating. As item after item landed on the turret, flashes of white light pulsed across its surface.
In the blink of an eye...
[Ding! You have consumed 5,020 one-star items to enhance the turret barrel caliber from +499 to +500.]
[Current turret caliber: 2,540 cm.]
[Ding! You have consumed 5,021 one-star items to enhance the turret barrel caliber from +500 to +501.]
[Current turret caliber: 2,545 cm.]
"Hmm?" Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. Already 25 meters? Each enhancement increases the caliber by 5 cm, meaning a hundred enhancements would add 500 cm, or 5 meters.
Enhancing the turret caliber from +300 to +500 had cost him only around 900,000 one-star items, and he still had nearly forty million such items left.
The materials consumed for these enhancements are utterly insignificant!
By the time I've exhausted all these materials, the caliber should reach nearly a hundred meters!
Without further ado, he continued enhancing, adding points like there was no tomorrow!
Soon...
[Ding! You have consumed 21,020 one-star items to enhance the turret barrel caliber from +1499 to +1500.]
[Current turret caliber: 7,540 cm.]
Enhancing from +500 to +1500 had cost exactly ten million one-star items, and the turret caliber had reached an astonishing 75 meters.
Hmm, a turret with a caliber of 75 meters.
Generally speaking, a civilian high-rise building has floors about 3 meters high. Therefore, 75 meters would be equivalent to 25 stories.
In other words, the barrel of this turret is roughly as thick as a 25-story building.
Note: This isn't the barrel's length being 25 stories, but its diameter being as wide as a 25-story building!
And soon...
The remaining enhancements were completed swiftly.
[Barrel rate of fire enhanced to +1500. Current rate of fire: 150,900 rounds per minute.]
[Barrel length enhanced to +1500. Current barrel length: 15,020 cm. Range: 150,500 meters.]
[Barrel ammunition capacity enhanced to +1000. Current ammunition capacity: 1,003,000 rounds.]
[Barrel recoil enhanced to +1000. Current recoil: 1,000 kg.]
With this, the enhancement process was complete, consuming a total of 40 million one-star items. Yes, all 40 million one-star items had been completely exhausted.
Scar Dog stared blankly at the turret before him, which could no longer be called a turret. He stood frozen, unsure of what to say.
Ever seen a turret, buddy?
Yeah? Oh, have you ever seen a turret with a 75-meter caliber?
"Brother Jiang, I really can't call something with a 75-meter caliber a 'cannon.' Just looking at this thing gives me a headache. Do you really think we need to fear the federation?"
"I think we could just charge out of the Ten Thousand Races Arena right now and wipe out the federation."
"If we'd had this caliber back in North Creek City on Orange Red Star, one shot would have probably wiped the whole city off the map."
"Oh, right! If one shot isn't enough, we'll just fire two! After all, its rate of fire is nearly 150,000 rounds per minute."
"Hmm, perfect! 150,000 rounds per minute."
Scar Dog stood motionless, his expression blank as he stared blankly up at the sky.
A rate of fire of 150,000 rounds per minute meant they could obliterate a city in just one second.
At that rate, they could fire 2,515 rounds per second. In fact, even a second was too long—a millisecond would probably be enough to wipe out a mechanical race city.
After all, one shot from this cannon would essentially annihilate a small mechanical race city.
Hmm, truly remarkable.
And with its massive ammunition capacity of one million rounds, it could sustain continuous fire for nearly eight or nine minutes. Even if they ran out, no problem! Just deploy the two-star energy cartridge supply gun—the strongest item in its class—and bam! Full ammo again! What's the point of even trying to stop us?
Even the 150-meter-long barrel and the 150,000-meter range seemed almost insignificant compared to the absurd caliber and rate of fire.
"This is a bit much, isn't it?" Chen Jiang murmured, gazing up at the turret that resembled a residential building. The corners of his mouth nearly stretched to his ears as he nodded repeatedly, grinning with satisfaction. "But it certainly makes me feel a lot safer. The item description was right—with this thing, I can finally get a good night's sleep in the wilderness."
He was already itching to test his new toy against the galactic federation again. As for the Ten Thousand Races Arena? It was now too small a stage for his capabilities.
To put it bluntly, one shot from this cannon would likely send an entire mechanical race city straight to hell.
After a minute of sustained bombardment, not even the ruins of the mechanical race city would remain. People and machines alike would be vaporized, completely integrated into the soil.
As for planetary destruction, it fell short of that. But a "crimson light pillar" of this caliber could easily drill a small hole through a planet, reaching a depth of about 150,000 meters.
Still, compared to the scale of a planet, that was merely a drop in the bucket.
Especially the planet beneath their feet, Mechlife Star, had been magnified several times over.
It was roughly equivalent to the effect of acupuncture.
If the entire mechanical race could be gathered in one place, a single volley would be enough to wipe them out.
The greatest challenges Chen Jiang faced in the Ten Thousand Races Arena were the scattered distribution of alien race players and the inability to move vast distances quickly. Once these two problems were resolved, he could annihilate the remaining 96 alien races within an hour.
This was the sheer destructive power of Large-Caliber Firepower.
After enhancing all five upgrade options to +500 and +1000 respectively, two set skills were unlocked.
[+500 Set Skill]
[Skill Name]: Weather Control Device
[Skill Effect]: Launch a light bullet containing immense energy into the sky. This bullet allows you to manipulate the weather within your firing range, creating storms, hail, blizzards, and other phenomena for up to 6 hours.
[Skill Restriction]: Each use consumes an entire energy cartridge.
"Hmm?"
Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow, considering the +500 enhancement effect. It seemed promising.
(End of the Chapter)
Translator's Corner
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